Friday, June 5, 2009

Vodka sauce is a very interesting recipe for the simple fact that vodka doesn’t really have a flavor, yet when a small amount is added to a tomato sauce such interesting things happen.

If you believe such respected foodologists as Alton Brown, there are flavor compounds in tomatoes that are only liberated by alcohol, but is that really it? Is it possible there are things that happen when we combine certain ingredients that we simply don't understand, and never will?

This is a fairly typical vodka sauce recipe with one main exception – I use bacon instead of the traditional Italian pancetta. In case you don't know, pancetta and bacon are very similar, except pancetta is not smoked.

In this recipe I enjoy the subtle smokiness the bacon brings and I believe it adds a little extra richness to the dish, which allows me to dial back the cream content. I'm not a big fan of the cream-laden, pale-pink vodka sauces you see sometimes.

One thing with this penne recipe that may seem odd is that I don’t add garlic. There's some garlic in the marinara sauce I use, but I don’t add additional minced garlic at the beginning, as one would assume I might. I just like the taste of this sauce without that "extra" flavor. I can’t really explain why, other than to say just because.

If you've never made this before and want some delicious homework, I suggest trying a version with bacon and then one with the classic pancetta. I'd love to hear what you think of the differences. Enjoy!

the initial taste of the vodka sauce i made tastes plain, but the tang is great.. the thing is.. i used old penchetta and i think that the smell of the bacon is VERY crucial to the INITIAL taste. is that statement correct?

I find that you can substitute a soy creamer for many recipes which call for cream (not this one, 'though -- boiling makes it curdle). When that doesn't work out, a fatty coconut milk does boil well, but adds a coconut flavour to things a lot of the time (which I usually welcome any way).

Not to be a smartass, but there is no veggie sub for bacon. If there was everyone would be a vegetarian. Prepared sauce just means a nice jar of pasta sauce from the store. I haven't showed my top secret red sauce yet.

Well for some odd reason, Vimeo isn't loading for me -- it used to behave just fine. I turned off my various Firefox thingees and reloaded just to be sure, but it wouldn't load them either.

It pretends to load, but is empty and won't play.

Meanwhile, I'll just add 1/4 c of vodka and cream to my smaller amount of pasta sauce the next time I make some, because you intrigued me with how alcohol supposedly does something magical to tomato sauce. Oh yea, and of course bacon, mmmm 8^)

LOL, I love the way you think. Going to do this one, another question is do you ever add another meat or substitute say ground chicken or burger for the bacon? I am just wondering if this might not be a good setting for meatballs also.

Darn! I used all my vodka to make vanilla extract - now I'll have to go visit the liquor store again since the vodka fairy has not yet visited me - but that reminds me - as I was rumaging around in the beer fridge freezer last night, a new bottle of Barcardi fell off the top and hit me on the shoulder! No one in the house knows where it came from - so there may be some truth to the hard liquor fairy story! I'll have to train her to bring tequilla next time.

Hm. I think I just learned how important the bacon was to this sauce. I had to make it vegetarian since there literally wasn't any meat in the house that wasn't frozen (not even breakfast ham). While the sauce -smells- great, it doesn't taste of... anything. I have no idea how I managed this.

Thanks as always for the wonderful site. Do you know how long it takes for the vodka to be reduced to two or so tablespoons?

I found that b/c of all the bacon fat in the pan, it was difficult to see how much of the vodka I cooked down. My final product lacked a bit of that tang so perhaps the 2-3 minutes I waited before adding the cream was too long?

Hi, I'm deciding to make this recipe as I bet the cream adds a distinct and wonderful flavour to an 'ordinary' regular bolognese sauce. Plus the bacon sounds like heaven. I'm just wondering can I substitute the vodka with pork stock instead and use 3/4 cup pork stock instead of 3/4 cup water to enhance the flavour? I'm thinking i'll probably add less salt for the seasoning or none at all since pork stock can already be salty and I don't really want to buy a bottle of vodka. Or would it be better to just omit the vodka completely and not replace it with the stock? If its ok to use stock do u think i'll be better off with beef or pork stock? I thought maybe pork might go hand in hand with the bacon. Hope you can reply asap as I'm quite anxious (not to mention excited) to try this recipe out.

Btw, I made a lot of your recipes and watched many of your videos and I found most of them to be scrumptious. The first I tried was your roast chicken (I combined the two recipes with ur julia child's roast chicken) and caramel chicken (the recipe that statesand my whole family loved it. I'm next going to try your mac and cheese and your chocolate lava cake recipes which sounds really delightful. Keep up the good work!!!

Thanks for replying. So it's better to just omit the vodka then? I live in Sydney...hope I can find a cheap small bottle of vodka. Will it still taste ok? And how about replacing the 3/4cup water with 3/4 cup pork stock instead?

Btw, what pasta sauce are you using? I saw your earlier video on meat sauce and you said ur using Barilla. Is that good? I'm quite fond of Leggo's brand...have you tried that brand before? Sorry to bug you with so many questions...I'm the kind of person who really checks to make sure every ingredient that goes into the recipe tastes great. Thanks if you can reply soon.

Hi again, I made the recipe tonight and it turned out really well even though I omitted the vodka. Since I am a university student I couldn't really afford to buy the vodka and there were no small bottles available at the supermarket today. Nevertheless my whole family loved it!

I made some changes such as adding 1 bulb of garlic (I'm a garlic freak) and 4 shallots after browning the bacon. I also added a few extra sprigs of rosemary and increased the bacon to 1 pound. I used pork stock instead of water and I used Leggo's bolognese sauce with red wine. I think the red wine helped a little in adding a touch of alcohol to the recipe. In the last 5 minutes I stirred in 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese and this really added to the richness of the sauce. Thanks Chef John, this recipe is definitely for keeps! Looking forward to more delicious recipes!

I've just discovered your site, which is brilliant and great fun--I was completely gripped by the discussion of Cornell chicken, which I'd never heard of. Anyway, I have heard of penne alla vodka, as it's the first dish I learned to cook while living in Rome in the 1980s (the man I bought pancetta from gave me the recipe). Pancetta does come smoked as well as unsmoked, and I definitely prefer it smoked for this dish. The recipe I have also calls for fresh basil scattered over at the end, no rosemary--and a sprinkling of chilli flakes at final seasoning. I was puzzled by the use of water in the sauce--why? Otherwise, though, very nice to be reminded of something I haven't cooked for yonks. I'm now going to check out your chili recipes...

BTW, an excellent cooking site by an Umbrian/Sicilian cook/B&B owner near Assisi is http://madonnadelpiatto.com/. It's in English.

I had a sudden and intense craving for pasta today and remembered seeing this recipe. I didn't have prepared sauce but home-jarred tomatoes, onions, garlic, and mushrooms with some dried oregano stood in nicely. After simmering I hit the sauce with a blending stick to smooth out the chunks a bit before adding the cream. I used GF linguine made from rice, potato, and soy which worked great. I served it with simply pounded and sauteed turkey cutlets (with more of the sauce, of course.) It was so good I broke my discipline of no seconds and polished off a second portion. Salad for dinner, I guess. Thanks for another great recipe, Chef!

You are the man!Couple questionsIs the prepared sauce your work horse tomato sauce from the other video?Going to combine your chicken Parmesan recipe and one of your sauce recipes -- what are your thought on using your basic tomato sauce vs using your vodka sauce in your chicken parm recipe?